South Carolina ETV

Making It Grow! News Articles

July 16, 2005

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July may be best known for firecrackers, vacations, and sweet South Carolina watermelons, but this year rainfall is stealing the headlines. From Hurricane Dennis to Tropical Storm Emily to all the other afternoon and evening thunder showers July 2005 has been wet.

Before we complain about the heat and humidity, one fact needs to be clarified. Wet weather beats dry weather in the gardening business any day of the week. This may not bring complete comfort to homeowners who are seeing some problems develop around the home landscape.

Most all warm season grasses are growing by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, some lawns are suffering from Brown Patch (Rhizoctonia solani). This leaf disease is common when leaf blades stay wet for an extended period of time, especially at night. Homeowners make the proble worse when they irrigate at night or late in the evening. Excessive fertilizer containing nitrogen can also cause the problem. Homewoners should consider catching all grass clippings and aerating or verticutting their lawn.

Lots of moisture can bring slugs around the home and this year is no exception. There are a few insecticides available to kill this pest but the best solutions is beer. Pouring some beer into an aluminium pie pan will solve the problem. The slugs all go to the beer for an afternoon drink and end up drowning in the beer.

We can also expect to see millipedes around the home. This hard shell brown worm that has lots of feet and loves to crawl on concrete causing a mess when you drive or walk on them. The best treatment is to dust with five percent Sevin around your home. A fifteen foot perimeter should keep the millipedes at bay.

If you haven't noticed, bahiagrass has hit "passing gear." About the only people who benefit from this grass are those who sell lawn mowers or sharpen blades for a living. Bahiagrass has been sticking its ugly y-shaped seed head up for some time. It will continue in this reproductive stage until mid to late August. Manor is an effective herbicide for controlling bahiagrass. Be sure to follow all directions on the label.

Lovers of hybrid tea roses need not be warned about what rainfall and high humidity can do to their prized plants. If recommended fungicides are not used on a frequent basis, this disease can defoliate a plant in very little time. Some organic gardeners like to use baking soda for this leaf disease. It is not effective when disease pressure is high. Black spot is common leaf disease for roses in South Carolina.

There are many other problems associated with wet weather. We all know about mosquitoes. Brown rot on peaches, plums, and nectarines has been very prevalent this year. Even with all these problems and many more, I would still rather fight the problems associated with our current weather conditions than the alternative that is so depressing to both humans and plants.